


Goin' Down

by AthrunYuy



Series: Monkees/Stargate [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dysfunctional Family, Earth, Family Feels, Gen, Pre-Atlantis, Some Humor, au-ish, mentions of Dean Winchester - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 15:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1946664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AthrunYuy/pseuds/AthrunYuy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can try to make everyone happy, but in the end, if you aren't you, then who are you? After returning home on leave, John may have lost his wife, but he rediscovered the family that he once lost sight of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goin' Down

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anyone mentioned in this story. Also, all mistakes are my own.   
> Part of the WIP Monkees/Stargate series. Also, Dean Winchester is briefly mentioned in this chapter.

Coming home for leave for three weeks was supposed to be relaxing; how was I to know I was going to be blindsided by a divorce and an argument to end all arguments. The nerve of that woman! I can’t believe she had the audacity to accuse me, ME of all people of cheating! And with Nicky of all people! That was just laughable. She had only met her once! I didn’t dare endanger my new wife for more than that one time. Nicky could take care of herself, but Nancy, not so much. So I just laughed at the image she gave me. But when she started in on Jenna, all hell broke loose. I know Nicky hadn’t liked her from the start and would just itch to kick her ass if given the go ahead, who knew she’d turn out to be right; that’s a fact that I would never admit to her under any circumstance. And right now, I was damn near close to joining Nicky in the kicking of the ass of that woman.

Things have been strained for a while now, but I had no idea things have gotten this bad. Though to be honest when I got home she gave subtle clues that she was angry with me, from the moment I step through the door. I didn’t have the brains to keep my big mouth shut. Hell I had to admit that I was tired of the fakeness too.

Too many secrets, she had said. What the hell did she expect from me?! She was no stranger to classified government information. She knew when we got married that I’d be gone more often than not. Did she think that made me happy? Being newly married and only weeks later being sent out for months at a time.

We should never have gotten married in the first place. Nancy didn’t even know me, not for lack of trying on her behalf. That should have been the tip off right there that things wouldn’t work out. It was both of our faults. She married for her own image where I, I married for my father’s image. It was a poor attempt to make amends with the man who could care less for my happiness as long as he looked good to the public. ‘Dave got married, why can’t you?’ Dave, Dave, Dave… If he was so great than why not just focus on him for a change and leave me the hell alone. Agh!

I got into the grandma’y looking Cadillac and stormed off before I could do physical harm. The first thing I plan to do is get rid of the monstrosity and get a real car, an American Classic. That won’t show her a thing, but at lease I’ll be happier. Nancy always insisted on ugly big cars, saying that classics and sport cars were too rustic and didn’t show class. Screw that! A 67’ Mustang Shelby GT 500 was classy and showed you had great taste too. ‘Don’t do this; don’t do that’ Ha! Fuck them all! They can keep their overpriced bullshit and sit on it. I’m not one of them and damn me for trying to act like one.    

To my great surprise I was able to locate my Mustang within an hour of leaving, through a connection a buddy of mine had. It was restored back to its original glory and painted black with a silver racing strip running down the top of it. The purr of the engine made me giddy as I speed off the lot with nothing but the wind and Johnny Cash blaring in my ears heading out to nowhere, just as long as I was away from here.

I annoyingly acknowledge my cell ring at my side, the caller Id showing that word had already got to my father. After hearing it ring five separate times with no sign of giving, I chucked it out the window somewhere off the freeway I was currently on.    

I’m sure she bullshitted the whole story to make herself look innocent. God knew he’d believe her over his own son. He probably won’t ever know that it was me who made the decision for the divorce. She’ll claim that I was the only cause for the fall out. Typical. No matter what I do, I can’t make any of them happy.

I’ve been on the road for hours now, my only clue being the sun light disappearing and just now showing signs of reappearing. I have no recollection of the distance I’ve gone, except now the scenery is noticeably different. There was less rolling hills of trees off in the distance and no turnpikes only open freeways. I vaguely notice that there are changes in license plates as the traffic gets a little fuller for the morning rush to work. But they gave no clue to where I currently am. It could be West Virginia, Pennsylvania or Ohio for all I know, but I don’t really care as long as I’m out of DC.

At some point I stop somewhere and walk up a flight of stairs to an apartment and don’t have any memory of the trip till the hidden key I got from above the door is in the lock. Last thing I can recall is coming off the Pennsylvania turnpike but that was a whole state ago. Somehow the part of my mind that remains working took me to Columbus, Ohio somewhere close to Campus. Looking around I couldn’t miss the random flags for OSU or Columbus Crew hanging from flag poles off the sides of houses. It was like against the law or something to not show team pride for the National champs.

After I turn the key in the lock, I notice that the door is already unlocked and now that I’m a little more awake, I can hear the sound of music blaring from within. I place the key back where it goes and attempt to push open the door. With more force than should be necessary to open a normal door, I find the cause to be a blockade of books and cloths covering the floors and any other furniture that’s in the room. I can’t help the growl from coming out after I nearly break my neck trying to get into the apartment to close the door.

I dump the bag I brought with me next to the front door for future locating and search for a light switch on a nearby wall. Any attempt at moving further in the pitch black room would surly do me in. With my luck, the houses owner won’t even be able to find my body after it sinks into the pile of crap like quicksand.

To my amazement, the walls are covered with sticky notes and pinned up pieces of papers like wallpaper; even the blinds on the windows have notes attached to them. I cleverly make a path towards the hallway that leads to the kitchen and one other room. The two bedrooms, one to the right and one to the left of the living room are blackened from light as well. Once I reach the kitchen I switch on the light and quickly want to turn it back off. The hallway just beyond has a sliver of light coming from the office, so I head towards it, hoping to find any sign of life and hopefully find the source of the music trying to compress my brain.

The sight I find is not shocking. My sister is working from a large v-shaped desk with order only known to her. She doesn’t even notice my presence as I take in the sight of her. Nicky, wearing an air force hoody that has seen better days and penguin pajama pants with two different colored fuzzy socks is nose deep in books. Calculating the state of the apartment as well as the state of her can only mean two things. One: Jenna isn’t home and two: Nicky is in Paper Mode and almost certainly won’t even know I’m here till her report is finished. The only indication that she has since started, has eaten, are the wrappers of Twinkies and the boxes of sugar cereals in every corner of the room, one that is currently tipped over on its side on the desk in front of her.

“This can’t be good.” I sigh, leaning up against the door frame taking in the comfortable sight of something familiar. I remind myself later to have a word with her about locking the door, this part of town isn’t bad but when she goes into Paper Mode, anyone could just walk in. I do, however take this as a blessing in disguise. As long as Nicky is in Paper Mode, I don’t have to talk about anything. Suits me just fine.

I’m bone tired but too wired to sleep. Determined to not give in just yet, I start in on a routine of sort. Before I head out of the office I remember to lower the stereo to a manageable level, I head back into the kitchen. What I find doesn’t surprise me either. The cupboards are bare and the only things in the fridge should be considered bio-hazard. It doesn’t take me long to clean that out, but once I do, I head out to the store for real food.

With everything put away in the kitchen, I set out to make Nicky lunch. The lady at the store had given me questionable looks as she scanned the three 24 packs of Dr Pepper already knowing who they were for.

“No Twinkies?” She had smirked.

“Nah, I’m trying to put her through detox.”

“Good luck with that.” The old lady gave me a discount and made me wonder how often Nicky went there for her beloved Dr Pepper and Twinkies.

Knowing that dried cereal and Twinkies has been her only source of food since starting on her paper; I’ve come up with a clever plan to sneak in something of better nutritional value. I naturally make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with potato chips in it, but I slice up an apple to lay masked within. Cutting the crust off and slicing it in half, I grab a Dr Pepper and head back to her office. I catch her just in time as she’s reaching aimlessly for another Twinkie and casually slide the plate in its place. Her grabby fingers at the Dr Pepper in front of her face make me want to laugh but I don’t, knowing that her tunnel vision had yet to notice my presence. She takes a quick swig of the pop before looking to the sandwich. I place a hand on top of hers and smooch the chips down into the bread. She manages a smile at me, but I doubt that her mind had recorded it. I leave her to her work, and with one last glance she doesn’t take any time in doing that; half of a sandwich posed in her mouth and the Dr Pepper within easy reach.    

I head back to the kitchen to start in on it. Looking around at the mess I find it hard to find a starting point. A floor would be nice. So I start there, getting rid of all the cloths that had landed there not even wanting to know why. Like the random bra sitting half in the toaster.

I follow a black cord from the wall to the dish washer. Not so surprisingly, there are no dishes in it only the telephone with a red light blinking madly for someone to check the messages. The amount of missed calls is ridiculous, and the messages! I feel bad for the poor machine. I decide to relieve it of its suffering by pushing the answering machine button. A male voice that vaguely sounds familiar dominates the messages. It goes a little like this:

“Hey, Nick, this is just a friendly reminder to feed that fluff ball you call a cat. Ok…well *cough* feed the cat.” Beep, next message.

“Yo, Nicky! Feed the cat!” Beep, next message.

“Kitty wants food….fooood!” Beep, next message.

“This is the voice of Ziggy. Feed me mummy, feed me!” Beep, next message.

“Yum yum yumyum yum yum yumyum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.” Beep, next message.

“DUDE! Seriously, you have to come up for air some time. Feed the cat! Oh and while you’re at it, feed yourself too. Twinkies are good and all but solely living off of that can do bad things to your insides. Trust me, you don’t want that *long pause*……Feed the cat.” Beep, next message.

“If I get a call from your sister, I swear I’ll …. I’ll…. Do something….I don’t know…..Feed the damn cat. Poor thing is probably normal size by now.” Beep, next message.

“*long pause* *aggravated sigh* …..feed Ziggy……*long pause again*….please?” Beep, next message.

“If you don’t feed the cat, I’ll call Andy to come over……never mind *vocal shiver* he still gives me the chills. Feed the cat.” Beep, next message.

“Dude, Cat! Hello!” Beep, next message.

“Nicole Jules Dolenz! Feed the damn cat!” Beep, next message.

“Um, sorry about the last one……don’t hurt me.” Beep, next message.

“*Meow* AHHHHH (very girlish scream), *Loud crashing sounds* AHHHHHHHHH *takes deep breaths* that was scary. Um *more deep breaths* Feed the cat.” Beep, next message.

I could listen to this guy all day. There are more messages and probably all from him, whoever he is, but I don’t. I really don’t feel like laughing right now. I just wish I can remember where I’ve heard that voice from. Maybe I’ll ask Nicky later, if and when she comes out of Paper Mode.

I start in on the trash next, shaking my head at the randomly scattered empty pizza and pop boxes. When I come across a large pop case, I pick it up and notice it has quite a bit of weight to it. Curious, I look inside and nearly lose an eye in the process. I jump back in surprise and drop the box at the howl of protest I get for picking it up in the first place.

“FTL! Don’t do that!” I yell back at the fat Maine Coon black cat with a brown strip running down its back like a skunk that was trying to squeeze its way out of the box. I press a hand to my chest in hopes of keeping my heart where it’s supposed to be. He manages to shake his way free from his hiding place, though with effort seeing as how he is a 25 lb cat; hints the FTL (Fat Tub of Lard). The cat howls again at the hated name and sits at my feet patiently waiting for me to pick him up. “Alright, Ziggy.” I give in and pick him up and notice with amusement that he has a note attached to his collar. Snatching it off of its clip I read it and shake my head. It said, ‘feed me’, in Jenna’s handwriting.

“Been hiding for long?” I ask as I scratch behind his ears. He answers me with a poor excuse for a meow and I laugh as I look around and see the mountain of cat food poured out on the floor. “Got kicked out didn’t you?” I laugh knowing that Ziggy must have shown her the note a few times at first until she got mad at him for interrupting her work and just dumped the whole 20lb bag out on the floor and filled each bathroom sink up with water just to make sure he didn’t want that too.

I hold Ziggy up by his arms and let his real weight sink to the bottom. I can’t help but to tsk at him. “You solider, are going on rations.” I tell him placing him back on the ground. The cool thing about this cat is how much he seems to understand what you say to him and he has a reply for everything. This time I get my foot swat at in response. “Hey, no violence.” I scold picking up all of the dried cat food and placing it in a large popcorn tin to keep it secure from really fat cats who think they’re hungry. It’s really sad when the cat has to have a note attached to it to remind certain workaholics to feed it. It’s no wonder the cat is so fat. Once I replace his food with two small food bowls, one for food and one for water, Ziggy stands by to watch curiously as I work on the kitchens mess.    

After the kitchen meets my approval some hours later, I can go on no longer. A quick glance into Jenna’s room proves that that is going to be another times work and so I head to Nicky’s room. Ironically, Nicky’s room is nearly spotless. Goes to show you that when you work you don’t want to be in a room you are most in. I kick off my boots and jeans and toss my t-shirt onto the back of a chair and just lay back, cat in tow. Instantly, my bones feel much better. I throw an arm over my eyes and try to keep my mind away from my soon to be ex-wife.

I’m not asleep for long before a sound at the door stirs me. I’ve always been a light sleeper, being in the military for so long, it’s kind of hard to train it out of you. Before I can open my eyes a large bundle of Nicky plops down face first onto the mattress besides me. She’s out the second her head hits the pillow. Shaking my head, I pull one of the many blankets up over myself then throw another over Nicky’s head trying to be annoying since she woke me, but it back fires when she grabs the corners and burrows deeper into it. Whatever. I’ll try harder next time.

I sleep for only a few more hours, I know this cause what wakes me is an alarm clock so loud people down the street could have heard it. I’m so startled I literally flip out of bed landing not so gracefully in a tangle of blankets. I reach for a gun that is not under the pillow before I recognize my surroundings and not so kindly turn off the raging alarm clock. My heart is pumping over time and I have half a second of thought to tell Nicky what I think of her wake up calls, till I find a sticky note attached to my dog tags and had to laugh. It simply said “Twinkies?” upside down so that I could read it while still hanging from my tags. I look to Ziggy who is still bushy tailed from the alarm clock and he glares at me. “I didn’t do it.” I tell him, knowing that he doesn’t believe me and give up thinking that it is too early for me to be talking to the cat. How sad is that really? I’m in an apartment with another human being and I’m reduced to only having the cat to talk to.

Getting over my shock I raise and make the bed; old habits die hard. Not even caring to shut the door to the bathroom, I take care of business then step into the shower. Nicky wasn’t due to reemerge for a while, so I knew I was safe. Even if, it’s not like she hadn’t seen it before. I can remember staying at her dads in California and trying to share two bathrooms with a house full of people. Privacy there was nearly like the military bases I’m usually on.

I did find it kind of weird at first being so open with the girls, but I quickly got over it after a scolding from Nicky one morning; something about ‘seen it, saw it, who cares, now move’, then being constantly in her way in the morning while she and Jenna had to get ready for school. If that tells you anything about how long ago this was. For some reason, doing their makeup wasn’t possible outside of the bathroom. Luckily, Nicky had only seen me naked once before and that was by accident. Since then, not so much. Boxers were the least they got to see me wear. It wasn’t like they were trying to see me naked. It just so happened that I’d or one of the other boys would be in the shower when they had to get ready in the morning. Shower curtains always closed.

I never had a family till Jenna met hers. I was nervous at first being forced to take her to California for the first time; but to my surprise they not only welcomed her but me as well whole heartedly. I knew nothing of these people except bits and pieces about Nicky, but they seemed to have known me forever. Finding out that she was indeed a real person and not some crazy (though she is crazy at times) voice in Jenna’s head, both creped me out and amazed me. Finding out accidently she also had the ability to move things with her mind didn’t shock me as much as the voice she claimed was in her head. She was a brilliant girl with a photographic memory, so adding telekinesis and being an empath to the mixer didn’t shock me as much as it shocked Jenna at revealing her secret to me. She had some insane notion that I’d be scared of her. I just thought it was cool.

Grabbing my carryon bag, the only thing I had brought with me in my rush to leave my hell-hole of a house, I see that my choice of wardrobe is very limited. I have two dirty BDU uniforms and one set of PT workout clothes. It hadn’t occurred to me that I would need a change of clothes when I got home because all of my clothes live at my house but then again I wasn’t expecting to leave in a huge pissed off huff.

Shaking my head in disgust I dump my entire bag into the washing machine and glance around at the cluttered living room. Snatching some less than appealing clothing from under some old pizza boxes I throw those in for some good measure, because knowing Nicky she hasn’t done any laundry since Jenna had left and was basically going through all their clothes one day at a time.

I find an old pair of grey sweat pants in Jenna’s room that I’m pretty sure where mine at some point anyways, and a black Beatles hoody that’s big enough to fit someone twice my size; Ziggy following me like a shadow. Then without much thought to what I was doing, I start in on a routine from long ago, making Nicky breakfast with a Dr Pepper (I know better than to put her through Dr Pepper withdrawal) and feed the “starving” cat his cup of dry food. He looks at me as if to say ‘that’s it?’ and I laugh at him. “I told you FTL, rations.” I swear the cat glared, but started eating anyway as I headed in Nicky’s direction.

Just like before, she was head first in her books with no acknowledgement of my presence. I don’t mind though. She’ll make up for it later once she’s done, that I’m sure of. For now, I’ll enjoy the peace and quiet. I set her sandwich and pop down and just to make sure she knows it’s there, I take her left hand and smash it down on top to crunch the potato chips making the connection so she won’t forget it’s there. I watch her for a minute to make sure she takes at least a bite. When she does, I kiss her lightly on the head, her hand swatting absently at me in thank you making me laugh as I leave her to her musings.

I walk back into the living room and have to sigh at the sight of it. Today’s project was finding the couch. Ziggy was waiting for my return having already learned not to go into the office when his owner is working. A thought occurs to me and I test out my theory. I step to the left towards Nicky’s room and stop when Ziggy tries to follow; he stops as well when I do. Then I change directions going to the right and he follows me there too. This gives me a great idea!

“So, seeing as how you are becoming an attention whore, you are coming along with me on my run.” The cat looks dubiously at me like I just spoke Chinese to him but follows me just the same as I head towards the door. From what I can remember, Ziggy was never an outdoor cat. He wouldn’t last one night on his own. To my amusement he follows me out the door with no hesitation what so ever. It probably hasn’t dawned on him yet what I have planed. I feel kind of bad misleading him like that; but it’s his own fault for trusting a soldier.

I start out walking just to make sure he’s following me and he is. Stops when I do, and goes when I do. It’s a funny sight as I pick up the pace into a jog (I don’t want to kill the fat thing after all) and he’s right by my side. We receive various looks from the people we pass, and a few laugh. I’m impressed by his ability to keep up. If this works out, I’ll have a jogging partner. I laugh at myself at how pathetic I look jogging with an overweight cat instead of a dog, but I had to admit it kept me amused.

We’re not gone for as long as I’d like but I don’t complain. When we get back to the apartment Ziggy lays down in the grass out front presumably to catch his breath. I sit with him crossed legged and he manages to climb into my lap. As a present I scratch behind his ears and he purrs in thanks. Once I’m sure that Ziggy isn’t going to have a collapse lung, I set him down and we head back up stairs to tackle the mess within.

With having mission one for the day complete, I headed for the shower leaving Ziggy behind in the living room to do some grooming of his own. I’m in and out having been use to having a tight schedule and am stopped at a noise coming from the living room. I wrap my towel around my waist and head in that direction to investigate, thinking that Nicky must be hungry or something. I am completely surprised by the scene in front of me.

A young woman, not much older than ‘the wonder twins’ , clad in a red robe that’s seen better days and a green pair of Garfield pajama’s is digging through a pile of crap on the floor. She doesn’t seem to notice my presence as she ruthlessly moves from pile to pile seemingly in a pattern only known to herself. Without a word she moves from the living room to the kitchen opening the oven and pulling out a roll of duct tape I must have missed while I was cleaning. Grabbing a dry erase marker she quickly jots down what I presume is an inventory of things that she is currently holding in her hand; Duct tape, serving spoon, and rubber ducky. I can’t be for sure seeing as how each thing written was in another language.

Clearing my throat finally gets her attention as she moves towards me, her big brown eyes widening like she’s never seen a half naked man before.

“Uhhh,” Is all I manage to say as she steps right into my personal bubble and reaches behind me to Nicky’s room on my right. With a triumphant smile she pulls a purple hair clip to her and quickly walks to the kitchen to add the item to her list. I notice her long brown hair is in disarray and a pair of some kind of old jewelers’ glasses are perched on her head. I have no idea who this woman is but she seems perfectly comfortable going through Nicky’s mess. Not knowing what else to do, I quickly walk into the office not caring that I’m still wrapped only in a towel.

“What’s with Mary?”

“It’s ok.” Nicky states before I can even finish my question holding up her hand.

“But…”

“It’s fine.”

“But…”

“Leave now.” She shoos me away with her hand forcing me back gently with a force field. I’m befuddled at this point but Nicky not worrying does nothing to ease my concern. Stepping back into the living room I eye the woman as she takes one last sweeping look at the mess in the living room. Nodding her head at no one she promptly sped around towards the door, but not before giving me one last steely gaze. Smacking my forehead with my hand I suddenly realize that this should be normal for me by now, but I’m suddenly finding myself out of practice dealing with the situation.

At her departure I continue on with my routine from there, trying to shake the creeped out feeling the strange girl gave me, promising myself that I’ll find out more from Jenna the next time I see her. I keep myself occupied cleaning up the mess my sister claims is organized and feed her every so often along with the cat. Then when it’s late and I check on Nicky once again, I find her asleep at her desk and throw a blanket over her shoulders. Two hours later I find that she’s still asleep so I do my brotherly duty and carry her to bed. I lay down next to her and try to get some sleep as well, though finding it difficult when Nicky takes up more than half of the bed and the cats tail is wagging in my face from where he’s curled into a ball on the pillow between us. Either case, I can’t win.

Not too surprising I’m woken up only two hours later to a smack to the gut and an angry pair of glowing green eyes. “I was working on something!” She scolds me and jumps from the bed to head back to her office.

I sigh in frustration. “See what I get for helping out?” I ask Ziggy who had raised his head at the outburst. Deciding to give up while I was still alive, I roll over taking up as much space on the bed as I felt like and went back to sleep.  

Nicky finally comes out of her muss later on that night. I notice her out of the corner of my eye while I’m watching something on the BBC channel. She steps out of her office and stops’ looking behind her then looks back towards me. “Whoa! When did you get here?” She asks moving a little closer. “You out on parole or something?”    

“Free of all charges actually.”

Ziggy leaves my lap to twine himself around Nicky’s feet; she squeaks in surprise. “Cat!”

I roll my eyes at the obvious. “Yes, Nicky. It’s a cat. You do remember Ziggy, right? You’ve only had him for three years now.”

“Of course I remember.” She grumbles back coming to sit next to me on the couch in a huff. “I just forgot.”

“Typical.”

“What happened in here?”

“It’s called cleaning.” I explain to her as if it’s a new concept. “Now it’s your turn. You stink.” I add throwing a clean towel over her head from a basket of clean towels sitting next to the couch.

She snatches it off to give me a glare. “I don’t stink.” She says in return questioning herself by sniffing the hoody she had been living in for days now.

“I beg to differ.” I wave a hand in front of my nose to prove my point, but that only gets me a lap full of Nicky and her rubbing her face against mine. “Yuck! Get off of me! I’ve already taken a shower; I don’t want to have to do it again.” She only laughs at her revenge and jumps off me heading for the shower, hopefully.

A half an hour later she’s back in thankfully different cloths and a towel wrapped around her hair. “Better?” she asks, looking at the TV to see what’s on.

“Much, thank you.” I reply momentarily distracted enough to get the remote control taken away from me by use of a force-field. “Hey!”

“Boring!” She sings flipping through the channels landing on a show called Dirty Jobs. Watching Mike Rowe for only five minutes makes me appreciate my job so much more.                   

We sit in a comfortable silence watching Mike walk around in a sewer or something until the violence ensues with a smack in the leg from Nicky. “Get up, we’re going out.”

“What?”

“You heard me, we’re going out.” She repeats pulling on my arm to get me off of the couch.

“But…”

“John Sheppard, don’t make me use force.”

“I think you already are.” I reply resigning in my fate as she goes into Jenna’s room rummaging around for something. When she comes back she throws a shirt at me and goes on to her room without another word. Knowing that there wasn’t any way around it I change into the black shirt she gave me noticing the yellow symbol for the Columbus Crew on the front. While I wait I put my combat boots on and look around for my green track jacket that I had managed to find within my sister’s disaster room.

For a girl, she surprisingly doesn’t take long to get ready. When she comes back she’s wearing almost the same as me only her Crew shirt is long sleeve and she has their MLS Championship scarf on as well with purple Converses. She gives me an appeasing look before running her fingers through my hair making it stick up more than usual. “That’s better.”

“Glad I meet you standards.” I grumble back.

“Stick with me and you’ll be fine.”

A quick walk down the street and a block over was a two story bar called Ruby Tuesday’s. Apparently it’s the ideal place to be if you were a Crew fan. The bouncer at the door lets us in without charging us and the bartender seemed a little too excited in my opinion to see Nicky. His name didn’t matter right now for I’d already dubbed him ‘Klaus’ for he became a ‘Nazi’ the second he started hitting on my baby sister in front of me. (What can I say? He had blond hair and blue eyes; he was a ‘Krout). To his credit, he didn’t know me and not that I’d like to admit it, but said ‘baby sister’ was 25 now and was no longer a baby; so needless to say, I didn’t punch his lights out. Klaus quickly grew on me when he insisted all drinks were on the house. Anyone who gave out free booze scored points in my book, even if I still didn’t like the way he was looking at Nicky.        

For an hour I had to sit around while random people came up to Nicky to talk about tonight’s game and what each player did right and wrong. Almost everyone asked where Jenna was, and the answer was always the same, ‘You know her’; whatever that meant. My head was spinning from seeing so many people; but luckily, Klaus kept my beer full.     

As soon as the meet and greet session was done, Nicky turned back to me with a questionable look before smiling an almost wicked smile. “Shots!” She announces calling for Klaus to bring us just that. I want to protest but the hell with it. If it weren’t for the cleaning and Nicky being in Paper Mode keeping me distracted, I would have been drunk days ago. Fuck it.

Seven shots later, me feeling pretty buzzed (ok so a little more than buzzed) and Nicky close to smashed I found my mouth saying more than I planned on saying. The conversation was a bit of a blur but that didn’t seem to faze Nicky in the slightest. “She ran out of things to bitch at me about so, do you want to know what the kicker was?” Nicky nods closing her eyes for a moment as I assume she can't see me straight even though we had moved closer to each other as the drinking went on. We sat on our stools, knees touching for some form of stability. I had a drink in my right hand resting it on her knee when I wasn’t drinking it and my left practically hanging onto the bar. “Apparently we have been having an affair.” I gesture between us, drink splashing a little over the rim and I’m feeling good at the moment so I don’t care.

“Really?” I nod. “That Bitch.” Nicky slurs throwing back another shot of something. The bartender, I found out, likes it when my sisters come in cause he gets to make whatever concoction he likes and they’ll drink it. Freedom like that doesn’t come too often to a bartender. Nicky leans a little closer still to me to where I can smell the alcohol on her breath. “I’m sorry to say this but, you mustn’t have been very good, cause I don’t remember a thing.”

“I’m just fine thank you very much.” I protest not helping to look down at my crotch in apology at her words. “As I recall, you weren’t that good either or else I would have remembered at lease a kiss.” I shoot back at her taking another drink and nearly spraying it back out as we both begin to laugh uncontrollably.    

The laughter died down again as we are served another shot. “What a bitch.” Nicky said words coming together showing how drunk she was.

I sigh looking at my ring that was still on my left hand playing with it, recalling the feeling of what it was supposed to represent. “I never cheated on her.” I admit sadden by the fact that she would even suspect something like that.

Nicky’s hand landed on top of mine to stop my playing and to stop where my train of thought was going. “Like I said, she’s a bitch.” She pulls my face up to look me in the eye. “You’re too good of a man to have to put up with her stuck-upness.”

“Stuck-upness?” I laugh leaning my head on her shoulder for the moment and I feel her fingers pet me like a cat. It’s more soothing than I care to admit.

“Gank.” She finally says as she lets me go and takes my ring from my finger. “You won’t be needing this anymore.”

“Hey!” I protest but don’t know what I was protesting.

She places the ring on her right thumb and refuses to give it back. “John Sheppard!” She warns and I know that tone.

I look at her thoughtfully seeing the sincerity lay in her green eyes. “You’re a good kid.” I say patting her on top of the head.

“Don’t call me kid.” Her typical reply is met with a jab to my side.

I laugh before taking another shot from Klaus. “Let’s get some air.” I suggest, staggering to my feet. Nicky literally slides from her stool holding onto me like I had the ability to hold her up, but somehow we manage. We lock arms with each other as we head towards the back patio. Now that I was standing, my bladder made its self known. “Head out, I’ll be right behind you. Think you can manage?”

“Please, is the sky yellow?” She says serious expression in place.

“Now I’m worried.”

“I’ll be fine. Take a joke Flyboy.” She waves me off as she heads for the back door.

I pass a wall of photos but decide that my curiosity will have to wait till I come back. The line for the mens room is surprisingly short considering how pack the place still was going on 0100. So I didn’t have to wait long to have a look at the wall.

There were many shots of the fan section entitled The Nordecke. Glancing through a few shots I was easily able to spot out my two sister’s front and center cheering along with the rest of the fan section. I had to laugh; it had been too long since I’ve seen a soccer game that wasn’t off of the TV. There was nothing like the roar of the fans cheering on their favorite team and booing and flicking off the other. Columbus is the best State side. Their fan section was even noticed over in Europe. *I know I am, I swear I am, Columbus till I die,* runs through my head and it makes me smile. It gives me a strange sense of belonging seeing as how I’m now homeless.

My eyes start to blur from the black and yellow on the wall so I move along to check up on Nick. Stumbling through the doorway leading to the back patio after receiving a new pint of beer from Klaus I have to stop at the sight before me. “Since when do you smoke?” I ask sitting next to Nicky on top of a wooden picnic table.

“Since he gave me one.” Nicky replies with a grin gesturing towards a guy sitting at her feet.

Casually I pluck the cigarette from her mouth and flick the growing ash stem. “You shouldn’t smoke.” I tell her just as I’m taking a drag from it.

Nicky looks at me in an almost pout before taking it back from me and taking another hit. “This is my brother I’ve been telling you about.” She says leaning her shoulder against mine, possibly for more support. “John, this is Justin. If you ever need to know anything about the Crew, Justin is the one to talk to. He’s one of the founders of the HSH.” Justin salutes his beer and nods his head in my direction as I do the same in return.

Time swirls together after that from the drinking that had finally caught up to the both of us. We sit around talking about random things that I can’t for the life of me remember as time slips away. I vaguely remember walking back to the apartment, or should I say stumbling seeing as how I was taking most of Nicky’s weight as if my own weren’t enough; but nothing after that as we both collapse on the couch ending the night.

~*~*~*~*~

The streets are lit by the oncoming headlights as I carefully, and I mean carefully, maneuver down Interstate 70 towards Columbus, OH. It’s an easy drive since it’s 0300 and a Sunday morning. For the umpteenth time I curse my best friends sister in my head. I knew that something was wrong the second my best friend, Jenny, had barged into my room. Ok, maybe not the second cause I was asleep, but as soon as my clothes hit my face.

“Cam! Come on!” my blurry sleep induced vision had told me that Jenny was zooming around my room, stuffing random clothes into one of my spare duffels.

“Wha?” Is all I could manage as I scrambled to get my clothes on.

“We’re going to C-bus.” Was all she said as she headed out my door.

The sleepy part of my brain slammed into focus at that point, bringing me to complete wakefulness. There would be only one reason for Jenny to barge into my room in the dead of night. Nicky was in trouble.

Jenny looked wrecked in what little light shown through the passenger window, her long brown hair blown back from the open passenger window, despite it being October in Ohio. Her song choices also told me what mood she was in, as acoustic versions of all of her favorite songs bombarded me from the speakers.

I’ve known Jenny since we were at the academy, and when we were both assigned to Wright-Paterson we had stuck together as a team. So seeing her clearly in distress was starting to get me a little worried myself.

“Sooo.” Not knowing what to say seemed to be my specialty in situations like this.

“I don’t want to get my hopes up.” Jenny’s vague answer didn’t surprise me. After all, having a two for one sale in that pretty head of hers confused me enough to know better than to ask her to explain; so I get left hanging. I guess I’ll find out when we get there.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The door gives no resistant as I slowly open it. Amazed at this fact I slowly open and close it a few times before Jenny roughly body checks me into the door frame.

“Just open the damned door.” She huffs before stopping in her tracks and staring opened mouthed at the scene in front of her.

The small three bedroom apartment that Jenny and Nicky shared was clean, there was carpet, honest to god carpet, instead of the stacks of clothes, books, and empty take out boxes that normally littered the floor when Nicky was left alone.

I see my look of shock reflected in Jenny’s face as we scan our surroundings.

“Wow.” She drawls the word out in amazement as she crosses the threshold to flick on a light.

“Finally.” A gruff voice startles me. I instantly recognize the man in a black backwards base-ball cap as one of Nicky and Jenny’s Hudson Street Hooligan friends, Justin. “Was wondering when you guys would show up. It’s your turn to babysit.” He’s sitting in the blue papasan chair in the corner of the room, a bunch of beer bottles tell me that he’s been there for awhile. Picking up Ziggy he plops him on the floor as he nods at us and he takes his leave.

“Thanks, Justin.” Jenny sighs as she locks the door behind him before turning to the couch. Her small gasp drawls my attention to the two people passed out on it.

Nicky is lying on her back with her long curly hair splayed around her head. A man I don’t recognize, mostly because his face is buried in her neck and half obscured by her hair, is wrapped around her.

“Who,” I start to ask, knowing for a fact that Nicky wouldn’t just pick up a random guy at a bar.

“John.” Jenny is the only person I know who can sound puzzled, amazed, and excited all in one word.

“John? The mysterious flyboy ‘I can’t see you ‘cause my wife is wonkers’ John?” I ask having heard all about Jenny’s brother before. I’m also now puzzled and slightly amazed but more annoyed than anything else.

I don’t miss Jenny’s eye roll as she laughs. “Yes, that John.”

I stand there for a second not sure how to react. This is the guy that I’ve secretly been comparing myself too ever since I had heard about him. Jenny’s, until now, MIA brother, the man who inspired her to join the Air Force was suddenly passed out in a drunken stupor with one of my dream girls wrapped in his lanky arms.

I cock my head to the side. “I thought he’d be taller.”

Jenny snorted and smacked me on the arm. “He’s lying down.”

“Still. Taller.” I emphasis and promptly turn heading towards the bedroom on the right of the living room. A quick look proves that Jenny’s room had obviously been designated the temporary laundry room so without another thought I head into Nicky’s room and sprawl on my stomach. Unsurprisingly Jenny soon follows me, elbowing for space on Nick’s queen size bed.

Despite getting only 3 hours of sleep before being woken up at the ass crack of the night and then being dragged an hour to the OSU campus and then passing out in Nick’s bed I still rise at my usual early hour to take a run. I am very surprised when I walk into the living room to see one John Sheppard sitting in the papas-an chair his arms on his knees and his head hanging. Serves him right. In my opinion he deserves much more than a pounding hangover.

“Uh, hey.” I stage whisper, trying to get his attention without waking up the lump in the couch. Though I should know by now that nothing short of a nuclear bomb going off in the living room would rouse Nick into the land of the conscious. Sheppard is clearly shocked to see me standing in the entrance to the living room, eying me up and down. I see that at some point someone had decided to drape a blanket over the sleeping girl and it had bunched down around her waist. Carefully I pull it up under her chin and under Sheppard’s skeptical gaze I place a quick kiss on her forehead. Unsurprisingly she doesn’t respond. Smiling I turn to Sheppard who has now stood up, his back ramrod straight; obviously seeing me as a threat. “Cam.” I shortly introduce. He doesn’t relax, but takes my offered hand to shake. Before he can open his mouth to respond I cut him off. “You must be John Sheppard.”

A look of surprise passes over his features briefly before it’s schooled back into a cocky grin. A loud snore has us both turning to Nick rolling halfway off the couch, we’re both there in a split second gently pushing her somewhat back on. I don’t miss the glare he gives me as I push a strand of her curly blond hair out of her face. Remembering the last time Nicky had gotten really drunk I do an inventory, running my hands over her earlobes counting the one stud and loop on the top of her right ear, the 3 studs on her right earlobe and the five studs on her left lobe. Moving her face I count the one nose ring, so ok no new piercings that I can see. Unwinding her arms from the covers I quickly glance over them relived to see that there are no new tattoos.

“So you’re?” He moved closer toward me eying me as I lifted the unconscious girl and pulled the side of her tank top up to run my eyes over her back. Sighing in relief since she still only had the crest moon on her lower back and the Japanese kanji for little sister on her shoulder. I wasn’t all that surprised when he grabbed my hand, shoving me aside and pulling the blanket back over her. “What are you doing?”

“Jenny’s wing-man.” I put out there kind of peeved that I know so much about this guy and he doesn’t even know my name.“And last time Nick got drunk, we kinda got our tongues pierced, so you know, just checking to make sure you guys didn’t do anything stupid.” I pause. “You don’t have anything new do you?”

“What? No!” He sputters, unconsciously running his hands over his arms. “Not that I know of anyway.” He adds trying to recall last night’s affair. “Jenny? And you have your tongue pierced?” He asks with a raised brow that I just want to shave off out of spite.

“Yes, _Jenny_. I’m a country boy and that’s what I call her. I took it out the next day. Hurt like a bitch.” Why is it that I suddenly feel that I need to defend myself to this airhead. “You running or what?” I ask trying to get away from this cat fight that was sure to come before the claws come out.

“I am.” He says stretching his back. Knowing that Nick was out for at least a couple more hours I grab one of the many stacks of sticky notes and hastily scribble on it, then slapping it on her forehead I head to the door. Sheppard laughed at my note and scribbled one of his own, placing it right under her collar bone.

I move to the door ready to go and find myself getting pissed all over again just at the sight of this guy. Taking his sweet ass time he goes into Jenny’s room leaving me hanging in the breeze. If it weren’t for the fact that the girls were sleeping I’d raise my voice, something I have no problem doing with pretty boy here. When he comes back out with the cat in tow, I don’t think anything of it until the fat poof ball follows us out the door. “And where do you think you’re going?” I receive an ungodly mow in return and in response I cross my eyes at it knowing it creeps him out.

“He needs the exercise.”

“You mean to tell me…” I bug off in shock pointing down at the cat in question. At John’s smirk all I can do is shake my head at yet another annoyance this man is causing me. But, I do have to admit, that’s pretty cool.

We jog for quite a few minutes before we reach the park and to my great and utter shock the damn cat is keeping pace with us, though on our behalf I know we’ve been taking it slow for the simple fact that a fat cat was following us and I’m pretty damn sure John was feeling his hang over right about now. I have to laugh evilly in my head at the thought. John slows in his pace and gradually comes to a stop. “We should give the cat a break. He’s new at this.”

“Sure it’s not just you who needs the break?” I can’t help but to poke him.

“ _Please_.” At the roll of his eyes I again feel the urge to smack him, but I hold off, more afraid of what Jenny would do to me than what John would. “So, you Jenna’s boyfriend or something?” He tries to ask in a piss ass poor attempt at small talk.

“What, just because we hang out, we’re all of the sudden an item?” I growl back putting my hands on my hips to keep them away from his face.

“No,” he shrugs, “Just don’t want to see her hurt again.”

I don’t know what happened, but something just snapped and I found myself not able to contain the words from flying out of my mouth. “What, like you did? When you stopped answering the phone?” I feel the loose hold I have on my anger go right out the window. He thought _I_ was going to hurt them? I didn’t plan on leaving, I couldn’t even see a time in my life when they weren’t going to be there.

“I didn’t have a choice!”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. I’ve spent the last four years of my life hearing about the ‘great’ John Sheppard and about how much they care for you. And you have the balls to waltz back into their lives like nothing happened?” I feel my anger rise as his face falls like I hit him in the guts. Damn right he should feel guilty. “I spent a whole month trying to convince Jenny that you where ok, that nothing had happened to you, and then I spent another month trying to keep Nick from beating the shit out of every guy with spiky brown hair.” The memory of those few months fuels my anger, and despite knowing how my girls feel about this man I want to hurt him. I want him to know how awful it was for them. “I actually had to hold Nicky while she cried. Nicky! Cried! And it was all because you where too chicken shit to pick up the god damned phone. And If you ever! EVER! Tell Nick that I told you that I WILL kill you in your sleep!”

“You have no right!” He screams at me I can tell that I’ve hit a button or two. “I care about them like family.”

“Oh, so you don’t leave a man behind, but family is ok?”

Sheppard is visibly shaking now, his hazel eyes down cast, and his hands clenched in fists. A little voice in the back of my head, which not surprisingly sounds like my Grandma, is chastising me for not looking at all the facts. It must have been hard on Sheppard, having to choose between his ‘family’ and his wife, and I suddenly wonder if Nicky was right. If he had married just to please his biological father.

“I didn’t… I couldn’t.” Sheppard takes a deep breath, before turning away from me. I can’t shake the sudden guilty feeling that sits in my gut. This is someone Jenny and Nicky feels strongly about and is probably going to be sticking around for a while. Hell, if they could forgive him. Then maybe I should try.

Sighing I shake my head and hold out my hand. “Hey, My name’s Captain Cameron Mitchell; I notice you fly planes. I fly planes too.”

Sheppard looks at me for a moment, probably trying to see if I had lost all my marbles at the sudden deflation, before hesitantly shaking my hand back. “I’m Lieutenant John Sheppard. Nice to meet you, Butthead.”

I laugh easily, patting him on the shoulder. “I think we’re going to get along just great. Just don’t do that again.”

Shaking his head he lets out an uneasy laugh. “I promise.”

We start up our run again in uneasy silence. I don’t want to completely hate Sheppard but if he ever pulls a stunt like that again there won’t be any second chances.

~*~*~*~

I never should drink, ever! I should have known to stop at the fifth shot but John was upset and I had just written my mid-term finals, so I felt a drink was in order. Not so much now though as I struggle to open my heavy eye lids. A sticky note on my forehead explains why my forehead itches. I laugh weakly at it *Shower! Love Cam.* and I find another one on my chest *Please! Love Shep.*

“Ugh,” The world really needed to stop spinning or else what little I had in my stomach was going to end up on my newly cleaned living room floor.

*Ha, this is what you get for drinking.* An annoying voice in my head yells a little too loudly. I wince and smack at the air in front of me, wishing I could smack the source of the voice.

*Oh my god!* I moan back, it really isn’t fair that my head feels like it’s going to explode and from the sticky note I find on my wrist Jenna was feeling the effects too. It read ‘Went to get some fucking coffee.’ in her scribbled handwriting. *What Fucking Time Is It?* I moan back to her as I try to roll enough to see the clock on the TV stand and was reminded of gravity before I could fall.

*8:30 sunshine!*

*Again with the loudness.*

*Payback’s a bitch ain’t it?* I can hear Jenna’s laugh loud and clear as if she were right in front of me and I have to say, it really is a bitch.

*8:30? Really? Bitch.*

*Jerk.* Her response makes me laugh but that too I regret with the fog still floating in my head.

A sudden realization hits me and I shoot up in panic wishing I hadn’t after the fact. *Where’s John?!*

*Relax, Cam’s on guard duty.* Came Jenna’s thankfully softer reply. *They went out for a run.* She could feel that Jenna understood the sudden fright at not seeing him here when they both distinctly remembered him being here before.

*And you let them? What if Cam kills John and hides the body?* the possibilities run through my head like little hamsters with flash cards.

*It’s not like I had a choice!* Jenna’s loudness was coming back to remind me of the hangover that truly didn’t need reminding of. *I was asleep when they left. _Someone_ kept me up all night.*

*Right sorry, but it seemed appropriate at the time.* My lame apology was met with a mental image of my sister rolling her eyes.

*Go take a shower, you smell like smoke. I’ll be back soon with the coffee.*

*Ai ai captain.*

I’m not in the shower for longer than 10 minutes before I hear Jenna calling through the apartment looking for Ziggy. *When you cleaned, did you happen to throw away the cat in the process?* Jenna asks me vaguely recalling seeing him last night but wasn’t so sure now.

*He’s probably hiding. He’ll come out eventually.* I groan at being interrupted from the blissfully warm water. The sudden chilled air breaking into my paradise produced a floating Styrofoam coffee cup in which my fingers grab greedily for it. Never mind the fact that I was still in the shower, the cup comes with a lid which is genius in my book. *Ah, perfect, danke sis.*

*Bitte. John bought his car.* Jenna informs me and I can feel her giddiness at the possibilities. His car being a 67’ Mustang Shelby GT 500 that he has talked about numerous times before about wanting one and now has it. Take that rich snobby bitch lady! *So it’s true then?* She asks in a sad voice. We knew that his arranged marriage wasn’t going to work out for him, but neither of us wanted to see him hurt from it. Which is why my mission was to get him drunk and now Jenna was going to have to do the talking. I pity her, having John say anything last night seemed hard enough under the influence but now to have him sober, Jenna was in for the real task. But I know she can help him, she always has before.

*Yeah, I took his ring and everything.* I inform her glancing at said ring still on my right thumb, an item I’m positive he’ll never get back. He doesn’t need the reminder of the life he never wanted.

*Good girl!* I can feel the mental pat that Jenna gives me on the head and I can’t help but roll my eyes. Shower finished I quickly pat myself dry and locate my favorite pair of Capri cargo pants and a Beatles T-shirt, emerging from my bedroom I quickly have to duck as a pair of my shoes float past my head to my bedroom.

*Whoa! I said I was sorry!* I cry in my head, honestly not sure if she was aiming at me or not. Jenna is standing in the middle of our living room, towels, shoes, and other items floating to their assigned places. Jenna’s laugh tells me that it was probably accidentally on purpose, but I guess in the end I deserve it so I have nothing more to say on the subject. 

I navigate through the floating objects and curl up on the couch intent to let Jenna take care of what little mess is left in the apartment. I know I shouldn’t let the mess get as bad as I do but I just can’t be bothered when I’m busy.

*So I take it your paper is done?* Jenna asks as a bottle of extra strength Excedrin drifts towards me. I smile as I swallow two bitter pills, my hangover slowly dissipating now that I have caffeine and a shower under my belt. I nod, pulling a hair brush and hair scrunchy towards me. Smiling she takes them wordlessly as I sit on the floor and she sits behind me. One of the things I hate the most about my sister living an hour away is that no one can French braid my hair.

*Yepper. Done and submitted last night. I’m thinking about submitting it to the exchange program. There’s an opening to go to Masarykova Univerzita Brno in Czechia. Which would be very awesome.*

I could feel anxiety rise in Jenna as she tugs on my hair, signaling that she is done. *You want to go to Czechia?* One of her perfectly manicured brown eyebrows disappeared into her hair line as she eyes me.

Shrugging I climb up onto the couch besides her linking our arms and rest my damp head on her shoulder. *I know it’s kind of far away, but it’s a good opportunity and we can’t always be in the same state.*

*Fuck, N.J. Czechia is farther away than a state.* She sounds sad as she rests her head on mine, and I can understand. Half our life was spent away from each other. The only other time we’d been in a different state for more than a week was when she was in the academy and even then I was only a couple of states away. Going almost halfway across the world was a little extreme, but it’s an opportunity I just don’t want to miss.

*I know, but there’s a professor there that I’ve been talking to through e-mails, he wants me to apply and if I get the position then he wants me to be his TA. It’s a great opportunity and I might even get to go on an actual dig. You know, besides digging up the beach at home.*

Jenna snorts and I can tell that she doesn’t like the idea of me leaving, but I’m almost 99.56% positive that our link would work over that vast of a distance.

My father had been both excited and a little freaked out when he had learned about the link I share with one of his best friend’s daughter. It was hard sometimes, for both of us, learning whose thoughts are whose. At the beginning keeping anything from her was like trying to keep a fat person from the buffet line but to us it’s just normal. Once we got older we were able to differentiate our thoughts and even managed to filter through things that the other didn’t need to know. And in doing so our bond has grown closer.

We fight just like any other sisters, and boy can we fight. Having our powers can be tricky at times. JC can’t afford to get too far out of hand or things can seriously go boom. Not that I don’t have my own explosive moments but she counts on me without actually meaning to, to buffer some of that rage. It can get crowded from time to time, but like I said, it’s normal and over the years, we’ve had practice. Me going so far away will no doubt put what we have learned to the test. But I’m confident, well, at least someone has to be; right? Boy, Uncle Pete and Papa Nez have it easy compared to us. Their link isn’t complete like ours.

The thought of being so far from home is kind of scary but I can handle it. I’ll be busy and I know Jenna will be too busy doing whatever pilots do with Cammy; she probably won’t even miss me. *That’s not true.* Jenna’s sadden reply filtered its way into my thoughts. I hadn’t even meant to think that to her. She slides down to rest her head in my lap and does that nervous habit of hers of worry rubbing at the silk edge of the blanket I had wrapped around me. *Besides all I’ll have to do is click my heals together and you’ll be there.*

“Ha, ha you’re far from Dorothy.” I roll my eyes and I get the desired effect of her laughing in response.

“I can do ruby slippers.” She mock pouts.

We sit in silence watching the TV aimlessly nothing really catching our eye. Being this early on a Sunday really puts a damper on good shows to watch, and I swear if I hear another televangelist do any more chanting I will get a hold of Mary. Thinking of her…. “John named the crazy next door neighbor lady.”      

“So they met huh?” Jenna’s eyes stay glued to the TV flipping through the channels.

“I vaguely remember him coming in and asking about ‘Mary’.” I say wondering if I had just imagined that. Usually after I’m done with my papers little bits of things come back to me.

Before anything else could be said on the subject a voice filtered in through the front door. “I’ll cover your six on just about anything but that. You’re on your own pal.” Cam says opening the door and giving John a shove. He stumbles in looking back at Cam with a glare that makes me want to laugh. *Well, at least they haven’t killed each other.* I chuckle to myself as Jenna sits up to look at John. John stands there looking at her and with my sister looking back as if in a trance.

*I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.* She repeats to herself, but I can feel the emotions looming in the background.

*So don’t cry then. Go talk to him.* I order standing looking around for my flip-flops. “Cammy, care to go get breakfast with me?” I order leaving him no room to say anything as I haul him out by the back of his shirt. Consciously I look down at the cat as he enters the apartment by our feet. “And you mister, where have you been?”

“He was with us. You should have seen him keep up.” The last of Cams words are cut off by me pushing him out of the way of the door with the rolling of my eyes. I should really be used to weirdness by now.

I don’t release Cam’s shirt till we’re far enough away from the door heading towards the parking lot. He shrugs out of my grasp and gives me a glare that I return unflinchingly. “Always man handling me.” He complains half heartedly giving me a grin. “I like that.”

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes at his ever present flirtatious ways. “They need to talk.” I gesture towards our apartment.

“Can I drive?”

“In your dreams Flyboy.” I reply tossing him his custom made helmet (description) that he catches with a grunt.

“Why do I always have to be in the back?” Again with the whining.

“Simple: bitches in the back.” I smirk as I snap on my helmet before climbing onto my motorcycle. Cam climbs on behind me with a mumbled ‘Jerk’ and I have to laugh.

~*~*~*~

“You took the cat for a jog?” I ask baffled by the fact that he can get the lazy thing to do things when I can’t.

I watch him as he nervously rubs at the back of his neck, something he has done since being a kid. “Yeah, twice now. He’s getting pretty good at keeping up.” His eyes drift away from mine as he watches Ziggy twine between my legs singing happily. I reach down and scratch behind his ears for a second before that causes him to flop down on his side. “I’ve been meaning to ask, where’s Hawkeye?” I can feel the dread seeping out of him at the thought of something bad happening to him while he was away and I can’t help but feel bad. I should be mad at him but I forgave him a long time ago. I know how dad can be sometimes.

“He’s in California. Uncle Mick takes care of him so we don’t have to worry when we’re gone long periods of time.” I tell him, the unease still shadowing his feelings.

“How is the old man?”

“You wouldn’t even recognize him.”

“Bad?”

“I can’t really explain it, but you’ve met ‘Mary’?” At his nod I continue the best I can. “Well, she’s a special kind of genius. We just let her do her own thing, she hardly says a word. Well one day Ziggy came back from being missing for a few hours and his tail had gone all white.”

“Yeah I thought that was strange.”

“Well, he had been lured over to Mary’s and she came up with something to make it so that he’d age like a human.” John gives me his famous eye brow lift look of confusion and I can’t help but to admit that I miss seeing that. “I don’t know the science behind it but she gave me one to give to Hawkeye and now, he’s like a puppy again.” I shake my head and shrug my shoulders in a ‘what else can I say’ kind of gesture. “Leave it to you to name the crazy next door neighbor lady.” I laugh at how easy calling her ‘Mary’ is. John always has a knack for naming things. It suits her though. “She’s harmless, well, to us anyways.”

The silence is deafening so instead of pushing him I busy myself with folding the blanket my sister had been using looking anywhere other than at John. He’s never been the type to be pushed into conversations especially personal ones, so it’s only best to wait him out. I don’t have to wait long to my surprise. He takes my hand stopping it from smoothing the wrinkles out of the blanket and turns me to face him. For the first time in years his face is an open book for me to read with no need for my ability. The despair in his hazel eyes makes my eyes cloud over in tears. “I am so sorry.” He whispers as he trails his fingers tips down the side of my face, his other hand going sweaty in mine.

“For what?” I ask innocently avoiding his eyes. In response I’m crushed to him in a hug and I can’t help but to take in his familiar scent. John has been my constant ever since we met, and even though I had Jules living in my head, it has always been him that I am truly comfortable with and feel safe. When he stopped calling, I was heartbroken. Logically I knew it wasn’t his fault. I scold myself every time I get upset about it because I’m an adult now; I have my own life to live and I shouldn’t be so hung up on this older brother syndrome I’ve contracted. But after everything we’ve been through, I’ve always thought we’d go through the rest together. Childish, I know.

“Chelly.” He says into my shoulder and at the one name I can’t control the tidal wave of emotions from breaking through the dam. He hasn’t called me that since I was 10. As I feel the wetness in my eyes flow down my cheeks I clinch him tighter to me. “I am so sorry. Please forgive me.” He begs into my neck and I can feel the wetness there as well.

I can sense his emotions rolling though him and I can’t help but feel guilty for being the cause of him crying. To this day there has only been a handful of times that this man in my arms has cried. It just seems wrong. I pull his face out of its cover of my neck and hold it inches from my own and offer up a smile. “There is nothing to forgive John Alan.” He searches my eyes and I hope that I get the message through to him. As I wipe the tears from his face with my thumbs he forces a smile and I can’t help but to kiss his nose. “But if you ever do that again I will rip you apart inside out.”

John gives me a disgusted expression at the thought of it. “Never again.”

“Pinky swear?” I ask holding out my pinky for him to take.

“With a kiss.” He says in return as we both kiss our thumbs, a pack we’ve form since we met so many years before.

“Good. I’m, tired.” I declare rising from my perch. John sighs slumping his shoulders. “Let’s go to bed. And when we get up you can tell me all about it and you can give Rob a call.” John merely nods his head allowing me to pull him to his feet. A few more hours of sleep will do us both some good and now I know I can finally sleep well knowing that my brother has finally come home.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just to clear up a few things for lack of the back story, Jenna's name is Jennifer Michelle Cartwright. Her father, Peter Tork, married Valerie Cartwright who is in an old Monkees episode. Jenna didn't take up Tork until she went into the military. So that's where the nickname JC comes from. Also, Cam Mitchell and Jenna were stationed together before the whole Stargate thing happens. And Dean Winchester, before he went to go get Sam in the first episode, had a fight with his dad and took a road trip to California and ended up working at the bar Davy owns and making friends with the family.


End file.
